Who will win the 2013 Giro?

Wiggins

137

35%

Nibali

140

36%

Gesink

26

7%

Hesjedal

28

7%

Sanchez

12

3%

Basso/Scarponi

7

2%

Rujano

3

1%

Cobo/Capecchi/Intxausti

9

2%

A Colombian

10

3%

Other/Garzelli

16

4%

Total votes : 388

10 Jan 2013 13:35

theyoungest wrote:Nibali is always fairly unspectacular, but he's also quite consistent, and he knows how to save energy in a three week race. He has also shown steady progression whereas Gesink's progress has been halted and, in my view, set back by the legbreak. In the only "real" mountain stage of the Vuelta with multiple cols you could see Gesink suffered like hell, and he was dropped really early, from a 20 man group. To the "old" Gesink this would never have happened. And the Giro has more stages like this.

Nibali is not that explosive at all. Gesink used to be better on hills than him.

But nowhere do I say that Nibali will be the main contender... I think Hesjedal and Wiggins have an equal or bigger chance.

When all is said and done I thought Nibali's ride in the Tour was impressive. It remains to be seen in 2013 whether he will continue on the same level or improve again but I agree that he will have to be at his best to have any chance against Ryder and Wiggins. I think the team change will only help him as well. It's hard to line up Ryder against Wiggins or even Nibali. Great win in the Giro but how good was the opposition ? It's hard to compare when the riders don't compete against each other regularly. Although looking at Rodriguez's ride in the Vuelta it becomes even less clear as to which GT had the more impressive performances.

theyoungest wrote:Nibali is always fairly unspectacular, but he's also quite consistent, and he knows how to save energy in a three week race. He has also shown steady progression whereas Gesink's progress has been halted and, in my view, set back by the legbreak. In the only "real" mountain stage of the Vuelta with multiple cols you could see Gesink suffered like hell, and he was dropped really early, from a 20 man group. To the "old" Gesink this would never have happened. And the Giro has more stages like this.

Nibali is not that explosive at all. Gesink used to be better on hills than him.

But nowhere do I say that Nibali will be the main contender... I think Hesjedal and Wiggins have an equal or bigger chance.

Eshnar wrote:If you mean last year, it was 14 kms at 7% or so. Hardly a short climb.

JimmyFingers wrote:I haven't read through the entire thread but I'm very surprised Hesjedal has so few votes as defending champion. It took a long time during the race last year before he was taken seriously as a contender, the consensus was he would be ganged up on and crack in the mountains, but he didn't. Am I missing something? Is the parcours particularly ill-suited to him? Or is who he's riding against?

That said, I voted for Wiggins

Leendert82 wrote:I dont have the feeling that Hesjedal will perform as well as he did last year. He is a capable rider, but some how I see his performance in the Giro as a one off

I think that Garmin's unpredictability could have something to do with it. They do swap leaders around quite often so you don't know who can/will do what. Having said that Hesjedal did top ten at the Tour so I suppose that made him a Giro contender. I wouldn't have picked him to win though.

A factor this year is the lack of options for a GC on that team with the USPS fallout. Pretty much just RH and Dan Martin. Of course maybe Tommy D will come back in peak condition and 'surprise'.

That Trentino stage was just the best mountain stage I've seen last year! And that little nasty descent was very nice too as it wasn't that long to bring everything together again. Hopefully that stage could get included into il Giro in the future.

taiwan wrote:I think that Garmin's unpredictability could have something to do with it. They do swap leaders around quite often so you don't know who can/will do what. Having said that Hesjedal did top ten at the Tour so I suppose that made him a Giro contender. I wouldn't have picked him to win though.

A factor this year is the lack of options for a GC on that team with the USPS fallout. Pretty much just RH and Dan Martin. Of course maybe Tommy D will come back in peak condition and 'surprise'.

Dan Martin isn't a GC rider. But you did forget that little pitbull, name of Andrew T.

And I'm not sure what missing the Mallorca Challenge could do to harm the GC chances of Christian VDV or Tommy D this year.

The Father of Clean Cycling, Christophe Bassons wrote:When I look at cycling today, I get the impression that history is repeating itself: riders who are supposed to be rouleurs are climbing passes at the front of the race, and those who are supposed to be climbers are riding time trials at more than 50 kilometres per hour.